Musician Nicolle Guerra wants you to know that suicidal people aren't always identifiable. They aren't crazy-looking or disheveled or hiding in a corner, as some stereotypes would have it. More often that not, she says, you’d never be able to tell by someone’s appearance whether or not they struggle with depression or some other mental disorder (as 20 percent of Americans do). So Guerra issued an important message in a video PSA asking people to leave their stigmatic thinking at the door and to embrace empathy when dealing with mental illness instead.

Guerra's battle with depression began in elementary and middle school. Her parents were getting divorced, and she was bullied by her classmates. Guerra said she felt guilty because she came from a loving home—a privilege many of her peers weren't afforded—and there was "no reason on paper" why she was struggling as much as she was. She'd started cutting herself by seventh grade, and it was around that time that she began fantasizing about death more regularly. "My freshman year of high school, I was writing a suicide note almost every day," Guerra tells SELF. "My friends and I had a routine of checking each other’s wrists and taking away pills—but there were fresh marks every day."

She eventually ended up in rehab, where she began digging herself out of her low-point. "Even when I got into high school and loved my school and had friends, I would be sitting there in class with this well of darkness in my head," she said. "It’s fascinating to me that people live their lives without ever feeling that low."

The biggest lesson she learned in rehab was that of empathy. Empathy was the thing that made her feel comfortable enough to share her story with the people who surrounded her, even though she felt that her struggle was trivial compared to what they went through. Empathy was what encouraged her to open up, because she realized an emotional common ground existed between her and those trying to support her. And empathy is the lesson she's carried with her ever since, because it allows her to compassionately hear out others—even if she hasn't personally experienced what they're going through.

"Prejudice is something that is already ingrained in this country—it's accepted and half-expected," Guerra said. "Empathy, however, is not taught with the same zeal judgment is. We're not often encouraged to step inside someone else's shoes, leaving our pre-conceptions behind, and truly feel what someone else is going through—or at least make the effort to relate." That's why, Guerra said, she was so passionate about speaking out on the subject. She explained that empathy is straightforward—"something everyone is capable of"—and that an act as simple as listening without judgment can mean a lot to someone in need.